, 1887-07-30
SHE WAS A NIArLIsr.
The Terrible Experience of "A Russian
Jewess-Among the Refugees.

h Terrible Experience of a Russian
Jewess-Among the Refugees.
An anecdote. which is absolutely true
in every detail, will Illustrate and explain
the feelings of some of the refugees in
America. Not far from a New York POI
lice station is a large three story brick
building. Years G it was a handsome
dwelling, but time and the small boy ave
played havoc with its facade, doors, win
dows, and railing. 1t is occupied by a
well to do Russian, who years g fled
his native land for alleged completely in
some plot against the car. 1t has long
been the rendezvous of political refugees
of both sexes, Russian Nihilists, Polish
Liberators. French Communards, German
Socialists, and Cosmopolitan Anarchists.
The circle met there is composed of edu-
Gated aud clever people. Nearly all are
excellent lnguists, and more or less sue
cessful in trade, literature, or professional
life. Owing probably to the terrible
scenes in which they nave been actors,
all are more or less eccentric in behavior,
speech, or ideas. Not long since a party
of a dozen men and women were spend
ing the evening in the large old fashioned
parlor. All smoked, a few slipped the
v~itriolic vodka between the whiffs of their
cigarettes, while all the rest assuaged
thirst with the cheap wines of the Rhine
and Moselle. The conversation had been
political and literary rather than anec-
dotal in character, and had tagged until
the room was almost silent. The only
person speaking was a handsome Jewess,
of "a or %, whose name or nom de guerre
was Theodore Ounavitsch. She was a
rare type of that race, being a superb
blonde with bright golden hair, large
lustrous blue eyes, and exhibiting the
powerful figure and splendid health
which characterizes the Hebrew women
to so remarkable a degree. AS she paused
at the end of an argument and drained a
glass of J~osephshoefer, some one asked,
What made you a Nihilist, Dora?'
Nothing very remarkable to us Rus
slams, " she replied. 81 belong to a good
family in a small town in the Warsaw
province. | married the rabbi of our
synagogue, and we were very happy for
a few months. The car then made a
change, and sent down a new governor
from st. Petersburg to replace our old
one, who was u good and just man, al
though a Russian general. The new
conner had every vice and no virtue of
any kind. He was so bad and cruel that
our friends and relatives wrote us when
he came warning us against him. My
husband the next Sabbath in the syna-
gogue told our people about him, and adj
vised them to be overcautious in not VIC
latinE my of the thousand tyrannical laws
with which we were cursed. Though he
spoke in Hebrew for fear of spies, some
n betrayed him to he governor. He
was arrested, tried, flogged on the public
square into insensibility, and sent to ST.
I.rtp fAr ltFn . II l.
underwent his gony, and stood it until
l became crazed. l broke through the
crowd toward the wretch of an official,
and cursed him and his master the car,
and swore vengeance against both. l too
was arrested, and tried at court martial,
and sentenced to receive a hundred blows
with the rod in the public square. l, a
woman, was taken by drunken moujiks
and heather CG5sacks to the place, tied
by my hands to the whipping post, my
clothing torn from my body to the waist,
and beaten before all the soldiery and the
people of the town. At the twentieth
blow tainted, but the ropes held me up,
and the full hundred were counted ON my
body. They cut me down, rubbed rock
salt and water and some iron that eats
like fire into my back to stop the bleed
ing, and carried me to the hospital.
81 lay there two months and was dis
charged. / had but one idea then, and
that was vengeance. By patience l man
aged to get employment in the governors
palace as seamstress. One afternoon he
was in his bath and sent for towels. The
attendant was tired, and l volunteered to
take them. l threw them over my arm
and under them l held a long stiletto
sharp as a needle. l entered the room,
and he was reading and smoking in the
bath. l laid the towels by his side with
my left hand, and at the next moment
with my right l drove the knife through
his heart. 1t was splendidly done. He
never made a sound, and l escaped to
this land. That is why l am a Nihilist.
Do n of you doubt p She sprang ex-
citedly from her chair, and in n half a
minIke had barred herself to the waist.
The front of her form from neck to belt
might have passed as the model of the
Venus di Milo, but the backl Ridges,
welts n burrows that crossed and inter-
laced as If cut out with a redhot iron;
patches of white, gray, pink, blue and
angry red; holes and hollows with hard,
hideous edges; half visible ribs and the
edges of ruined muscles, and all of which
moved, contracted and heightened with
the swaying of her body. There was a
gasp from every one present. The aged
host rose, silently kissed her on the fore
head, and helped her to put back her gar
ments. Then again the wine passed
round, and what secret toasts were made
rs the party drank will never be known.
William E. S. Fales in Chicago Times.
The MRnia for Collecting.